Generally, in the field of guitars there is a class of guitars commonly referred to as "steel guitars." This class comprises a neck-like body with a bridge at one end thereof and a plurality of adjustment screws at the other end thereof with a corresponding number of musical strings or wires generally stretched therebetween. The neck-like body is also provided with a plurality of frets situated transversely thereof and spaced from each other in the manner well known in the art. The frets are of a height as to have the respective tops thereof substantially below the musical strings or wires which are, in turn, operatively connected to electrical tone producing and amplification means, as is also well known in the art. The instrument is played by holding the cylindrical steel bar generally transversely to the musical strings while sliding such bar therealong to chosen or selected positions corresponding to a selected fret. It should be made clear that the steel bar when thusly employed does in fact rest across all of the musical strings and that the resulting tonal quality is, in effect, a blend of the tonal quality of each of the musical strings, in turn, determined by the relative point of contact as between the steel bar and the particular string under consideration. Also, it should be pointed out that in such steel guitars, the musical strings do not touch the respective frets as the steel bar is employed in playing the instrument but rather such musical strings continue to maintain a spaced relationship relative to the tops of the frets. This is unlike, for example, a classical guitar where the player, with the fingers of one hand, actually depresses selected strings against selected frets in order to obtain the desired effective vibrating length of such string and the corresponding tonal quality therefrom.
As should be apparent, the correct tonal quality obtained from such a steel guitar played with a cylindrical steel bar depends on the accuracy of location of such steel bar by the player. That is, ideally, the steel bar should be placed against the musical strings or wires as to be directly above and in alignment with the particular fret, selected by the player, in order to obtain the "purest" or most pleasing tonal quality. However, because the steel bar is cylindrical and therefore touches the strings or wires only tangentially, it is impossible to visually select fret positions and, heretofore, the player would often position such steel slide bar off to one side of the related fret or position it to be relatively skew to such fret. Consequently, the resulting tonal quality was less than desirable. Heretofore, the prior art has failed to provide any satisfactory visual means for assisting the player in properly positioning the steel bar, during actual playing, and assure proper tonal quality.
Accordingly, the invention as herein disclosed and claimed is primarily directed to the solution of such and other attendant and related problems.